Brands are letting the public down as they continually churn out cluttered content which generally wastes consumers' time, says a Havas Group commissioned study. The results also found that only 25% of Australians have trust in brands, making it the lowest nation.
'Meaningful Brand', which is the largest global study of its kind, analysed 1500 brands, 300,000 people and spanned over 33 countries. Generally, the data acknowledged an overall dissatisfaction of brands from consumers, with over half of content created by brands deemed “irrelevant”.
Meaningfulness was measured by a brand's impact and benefits to the community, as well as its contribution to the consumer's wellbeing and quality of life. The study also found that brands which were considered meaningful are shown to deliver financially, outperforming the stock market by 206%.
While brand trust in Australia was the lowest worldwide, global company Google was found to be the most meaningful in the country, followed by PayPal, ABC, Coles and Qantas. The food industry was found to be the most liked by Australians, with tourism and leisure coming in at fifth place.
Havas Group CEO Yannick Bolloré says the results should be seen as a wake-up call to brands.
“Brands must rapidly become better at seizing the opportunities that good content can provide, or they will struggle to survive” states Bolloré.
For Havas Media Group's global chief insights and analytics officer Maria Garrido, the over-saturation of existing content speaks to the alarming ineffectiveness of brands in establishing a relationship with consumers.
The global average for brand trust sits at just 57%. While 84% of people expect brands to produce content, the study found that 60% of all content created is considered "poor".
Sydney-based Havas chief strategy officer Imogen Hewitt adds: “Understanding the role of content in order to be a Meaningful brand has become more important than ever.”
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